


now I lay me down to sleep

by tielan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Literal Sleeping Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 18:03:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6089446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He wakes with a jolt; startled out of sleep by a hand brushing his jaw.</p>
            </blockquote>





	now I lay me down to sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr ficbit - **♡: Accidentally falling asleep together - Captain Hill**. There'll be a few of these in the coming days.

He goes to the Avengers Facility because it’s more ‘home’ than his apartment. After Wanda’s visions, he understands why.

There are lights on, of course – someone’s _always_ awake here at the facility – but rather surprising is the discovery that there’s still someone in the Avengers Lounge – the TV is on, showing a ballgame.

Still more surprising is the discovery that the someone in the Avengers Lounge is Maria.

Even more surprising is the realisation that she’s fast asleep on the ottoman couch.

His first thought is that something’s wrong. Because Maria Hill doesn’t fall asleep on couches, certainly not at work, not in the lounge. And surely, if she did, she’d wake the instant she sensed someone coming in? Because she’s Maria, and if she trusts Steve with the safety of the world, she doesn’t trust him with anything more personal.

Mostly, it doesn’t sting anymore.

_If I thought Ultron brought peace, I’d hang up the shield._

_Would you?_

Mostly.

Standing by the couch, watching her sleep, Steve wishes he had something she wanted – something she thought was worth her time, personally. But he’s just a soldier, made for war, and there’s no home in him for a woman who is herself a blade.

Steve wonders – for a brief and reckless moment – if he should risk kissing her awake. Except that would betray her trust beyond anything else he could ever do, and she’d never forgive him.

He’d never forgive himself.

He doesn’t want to wake her, though, and he’s not really tired. So he sits down on the floor to watch the ballgame. There’s a rug and it’s more comfortable than some places he slept in Europe, during the war, or even occasionally out on missions with STRIKE. And he sits, guarding Maria’s sleep, and watches the innings – fifth, sixth, seventh—

He wakes with a jolt; startled out of sleep by a hand brushing his jaw.

He doesn’t mean to turn his head so his mouth brushes her fingers. And, yes, it feels clumsy, awkward, but the scrape of her fingertips against his cheek is electric as a caress – as electric as her eyes staring at him as she registers that she scraped against something that was most definitely _not_ couch.

“Rogers?” She sits up, pulling her hand away and dragging her fingers through her hair. “What—? When—?”

“Last night,” he says. “You were asleep.” He looks up at the TV, now showing a college football game from last weekend and winces. “We both were.”

“Oh.” It seems to take Maria a moment to drag herself together, and he watches because he so rarely sees her discombobulated, and it’s...charming. Of course she notices. “Stop staring like that.”

_Like what?_ Is the instinctive response – but that’s childish. Steve smiles at her. “Good morning, Maria.”

She rolls her eyes, a bright blush across her cheeks. “Good morning, Steve.”


End file.
